The related application discloses a new form or type of integrated circuit, referred to as an adaptive computing engine (“ACE”), which is readily reconfigurable, in real time, and is capable of having corresponding, multiple modes of operation.
The ACE architecture for adaptive or reconfigurable computing, includes a plurality of different or heterogeneous computational elements coupled to an interconnection network. The plurality of heterogeneous computational elements include corresponding computational elements having fixed and differing architectures, such as fixed architectures for different functions such as memory, addition, multiplication, complex multiplication, subtraction, configuration, reconfiguration, control, input, output, and field programmability. In response to configuration information, the interconnection network is operative in real time to adapt (configure and reconfigure) the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements for a plurality of different functional modes, including linear algorithmic operations, non-linear algorithmic operations, finite state machine operations, memory operations, and bit-level manipulations.
The ACE architecture provides a single IC, which may be adapted in real time, using these fixed and application specific computational elements, to perform a wide variety of tasks. For example, utilizing differing configurations over time of the same set of heterogeneous computational elements, the ACE architecture may implement functions such as finite impulse response filtering, fast Fourier transformation, discrete cosine transformation, and with other types of computational elements, may implement many other high level processing functions for advanced communications and computing.
Digital image processing is a comparatively recent field, and includes devices such as digital cameras, digital scanners, facsimile (fax) machines, and copying machines. Conventional digital image processing, however, utilizes conventional processing technology, such as digital signal processors (“DSPs”), microprocessors, or application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”). As a consequence, a need remains for digital image processing using an adaptive computing circuit architecture, such as using the ACE architecture of the related application.